Minivans and sport-utility vehicles typically include passenger compartments that provide ample seating positions and large cargo areas. Further, such passenger compartments are often reconfigurable to selectively permit an increase/decrease in the number of seating locations, repositioning of the seating locations, and/or an increase/decrease in the size of the cargo area of the vehicle.
For example, minivans may include second-row seat assemblies and third-row seat assemblies that may be moved from a stowed position to a use position to tailor the passenger compartment of the minivan to the particular needs of the user. As such, should the user require additional storage to accommodate large or bulky items, one or both of the seat assemblies may be moved into the stowed position to increase the cargo area of the vehicle. Conversely, should the user require additional seating locations, each of the seat assemblies may be moved into the use position to accommodate each passenger.
Moving the seat assemblies from the use position to the stowed position typically involves moving seats of the particular seat assembly into a well formed in a floor pan of the vehicle to increase the cargo area of the vehicle and/or to allow access to rearward seating locations. In minivan applications, second-row seat assemblies typically include a pair of separately movable seats that are received within individual wells formed in the floor pan. The individual wells are typically required, as a single well extending width-wise across the vehicle is not possible due to an upwardly extending “tunnel” formed in the floor pan that accommodates a portion of the drivetrain of the vehicle.
While individual wells adequately receive the second-row seats in the stowed position, the area between the second-row seats and above the tunnel is not utilized. The area above the well is simply used as a load floor to store cargo when the second-row seats are in the stowed position and is used as a passageway to gain access to the third-row seat assembly when the second-row seats are in the use position.